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Wednesday, May 24, 2017

In honour of Canada's 150th Birthday this year I designed a mug rug pattern to share.

The finished piece is about 9"x14". It uses appliqué and piecing techniques.

I think what really makes this mug rug is the Delectable Mountain quilt blocks used on the sides - they are similar to Maple Leaves on their own.

I used Bali/batik fabric in red and an off-white print (white would be great, but as it is a mug rug I knew stains would happen and this fabric already looked like coffee stains). I am sure two fat quarters would be enough - I just used scraps I had at home.

The piece starts with the Delectable Mountain quilt blocks -

You will need four each in red and white fabric - 4+1/4" squares.

Make Half Square Triangles with a red and white square (this is where lay the two squares right sides together, draw a diagonal line on the back of the light square and stitch 1/4" on both sides of the line. Cut on the line and press the seam to the dark - If you need more detailed instructions here is a link to my tutorial for Easy Half Square Triangles). You will make 8 blocks.

Trim the Half Square Triangle blocks to 3+3/4".

Place 2 squares right sides together, with opposite colours together,

the seams kind of 'lock' together.

Cut the block into three pieces 1+1/4" wide-

This creates 6 pieces that are opposite colours.

Do this will all the blocks (there are 24 pieces, 12 for each border).

The strips are laid out as in the above photo and sewn together to form the two borders.

Sew the two borders to a 8" x 9+1/2" square of white fabric (the 9+1/2" should be the width of the finished borders, I cut the fabric out 10" and trimmed it after adding the borders). The fabric is now ready for the appliqué!

I don't have a PDF, but you can just save the above image and paste it in app/program that you use to create documents - enlarge the image to fit a regular piece of paper (there is a 1" guide on the image). (There are also online 'Image to PDF' convertors that you can use - save the image and upload it to the site you choose - search 'Image to PDF). (If you really can't create your own pattern email me and I can send it as a PDF - the link for my email in in my profile, linked on the side bar).

I used my favourite Invisible Machine Appliqué for the appliqué - here is a link to one of my tutorials and another one. Any appliqué method would work. For the '0' I opted to add the centre as a separate piece using the white background fabric on top of the red just to make it easier to get the freezer paper pieces ready. You can see that the appliqué pieces overlap onto the borders.

When using the Invisible Machine Appliqué technique with freezer paper remember to press all the points down first.

I layered the the finished piece on to two layers of batting (the bottom one cotton and the top wool) because I find that two layers of batting work well for mug rugs (absorbs heat and spilled mugs).
A mug rug should be heavily quilted to make it lay flat, and so that mugs aren't tippy on it, but I did decide to leave the red parts of the appliqué un-quilted so they would puff up a bit (I think I will be thankful that I used fabric that already looked stained!).
I free motion quilted in the ditch around all the appliqué and the red of the border, quilted parallel straight lines in the red border, and sort of radiating lines from the centre in the white.

Thursday, May 18, 2017

I have finished a few things recently and they are all red - it just happens to be my favourite colour.

I made a few pillows to go on my bed along with my new quilt, and the whole cloth anniversary quilt I made a few years ago. The two pillow shams are just sewn out of rectangles of fabric, with a layer of batting for support, and a little flange stitched around the edge.

The little cushion is a piece of cross stitch on linen, with a fabric border and matching binding.

The larger pillow is a piece of fabric with free motion quilted feathers -

I started by marking and stitching the feather 'stems', plus the tips of the feathers,

and then stitching in all the 'lobes' freehand. These are 'Bump-Bump' feathers. I used a layer of cotton batting with a full layer of wool batting on top.

I added parallel lines for the background - you can see a few of the lines that I marked with a Hera marker as a guide for the angle. Super quick and easy to make!

Here is how they all look on my bed. When I made my anniversary quilt the plan was to have it as a backdrop for other quilts, and I love this more formal look.

I also finished knitting a red vest using some hand dyed, hand spun merino and silk. It is light weight and perfect for this time of the year (more details on my Ravelry page if you are on Ravelry).

For a change I started a scarf using some green/blue hand dyed, hand spun yarn. This is a free pattern on Ravelry called Waves of the Atlantic by Deborah Wilson. It is an easy knit, and all the magic is in the blocking.

Carrying on the Tradition

The old quilts on the right side of my blog header photo are ones made by a couple of great-grandmothers, a grandmother and an aunt, plus some of their photos and some of their quilting supplies. The quilt in the background and the ones on the left are mine.